Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014

Most Asian stocks fell as corporate earnings showed mixed results and the Bank of Japan added nothing new to its stimulus pledge. The regional benchmark index remains headed toward its biggest monthly advance since at least December.

Shiseido Co., Asia�� biggest cosmetics maker, slumped 8.3 percent in Tokyo after reducing its dividend. Advantest dropped 7.9 percent after the maker of chip testers posted an unexpected loss on falling computer demand. BYD Co., the Chinese automaker partially owned by Warren Buffett�� Berkshire Hathaway Inc., jumped 12 percent in Hong Kong after saying first-half earnings will surge.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.1 percent to 139.79 at 7:11 p.m. in Tokyo, erasing a gain of 0.4 percent. About two stocks dropped for each that rose. The measure is heading for a 2.6 percent advance this week, while having gained 3.1 percent this month.

��rofit results look OK,��said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which has $126 billion under management. ��nvestors are giving Japan the benefit of the doubt. If it�� a good profit or economic figure, investors say it�� good. And if it�� a bad one, they say it doesn�� matter because the BOJ is doing stimulus.��

Hot Gas Companies To Invest In Right Now: A-Cap Resources Ltd (ACB)

A-Cap Resources Limited is an Australia-based mineral exploration company. The Company�� principal activity during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012), is exploration of its tenement portfolio in Botswana and the ongoing feasibility studies into the Letlhakane Uranium Project. The Company focuses on investment in Botswana in Southern Africa, where it holds over 5000 square kilometer of exploration licenses. The Company�� projects include Botswana project, Letlhakane project, Mea-Coal project, Bolau-Coal project and Southern Pans project. The Company�� 100% owned Letlhakane Uranium Project is located in northeast Botswana. In July 2012, A-Cap announced the discovery of two new coal projects in Botswana, transforming the Company into a multi-commodity exploration outfit. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Heinzl]

  You'll notice that these numbers don't add up to $1.4988. That's because the 2012 distribution also contained a hefty chunk of return of capital (70.489 cents). ROC isn't taxable immediately; rather, it is subtracted from the adjusted cost base (ACB) of the units, which gives rise to a larger capital gain, or smaller capital loss, when the units are ultimately sold. Many REITs and mutual funds also distribute ROC. ROC can be a bit of a headache for investors. If you hold BIP in a non-registered account, you (or your accountant), will need to track those ROC payments in order to keep your ACB up to date. Knowing the ACB is necessary to calculate your capital gain, or loss, when it comes time to sell.

Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc (MSO)

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (MSO), incorporated on May 7, 1996, is an integrated media and merchandising company providing consumers with lifestyle content and products. The Company operates in three segments: Publishing, Broadcasting, Merchandising, Publishing and Broadcasting. The media and merchandise it creates generally consists of cooking and entertaining, holiday and celebrations, crafts, home, weddings, organizing, office products and accessories, gardening and outdoor living, and pets (grooming, apparel, feeding and health). In December 2012, the Company ceased its Everyday Food publication. In January 2013, the Company discontinued publication of Whole Living.

Publishing

During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company�� Publishing segment accounted for 62% of its total revenues, consisting of operations related to magazine and book publishing and digital distribution, principally through its marthastewart.com. Revenues from magazine and digital advertising represented approximately 63% of the segment�� revenues during 2012, while circulation revenues represented approximately 34% of the segment�� revenues. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� Everyday Food publication is being issued as an occasional insert to Martha Stewart Living subscribers.

Martha Stewart Living, its flagship magazine, is the foundation of its publishing business. The Company As of December 31, 2012, it published Martha Stewart Living on a monthly basis with a rate base of 2.05 million. The magazine primarily focused to the college-educated woman between the ages of 25 and 54 who owns her residence. Martha Stewart Living offers lifestyle ideas. Martha Stewart Weddings, a quarterly publication, targets the upscale bride and serves. Martha Stewart Weddings is distributed primarily through newsstands.

Martha Stewart Living, its flagship magazine, is the foundation of its publishing business. The Company As of December 31, 2012, it published Martha ! Stewart Living on a monthly basis with a rate base of 2.05 million. The magazine primarily focused to the college-educated woman between the ages of 25 and 54 who owns her residence. Martha Stewart Living offers lifestyle ideas. Martha Stewart Weddings, a quarterly publication, targets the upscale bride and serves. Martha Stewart Weddings is distributed primarily through newsstands.

The marthastewart.com Website is its digital properties, offering a range of continually updated articles, recipes and videos developed from several Martha Stewart brands, including its magazine properties. The Website provides several lifestyle categories: food, entertaining, holidays, home and garden, crafts and pets. The Website also serves as a gateway to its other properties, including marthastewartweddings.com and emerils.com. The Company produces digital editions available through Barnes & Noble's Nook, Amazon's Kindle Fire and through the Zinio platform. During 2012, it built a custom storefront in Apple's iTunes, which allows it to sell subscriptions and single copies of its magazines, only for Apple's iPad products. The Company produces iPad versions of Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings, the latter of which was launched during 2012. During 2012, it launched the Craft Studio app available on Apple iTunes.

Merchandising

The Merchandising segment consists of the Company�� operations related to the design and branding of merchandise and related collateral and packaging materials that are distributed by its retail and manufacturing partners in exchange for royalty income. The Company�� merchandising segment contributed 29% of its total revenues during 2012. The segment consists of operations related to the design of merchandise and related packaging, collateral and advertising materials, and the licensing of various trademarks, in connection with retail programs conducted through a number of retailers and manufacturers. The Company�� Martha Stewart Living prog! ram at Th! e Home Depot is available at all of The Home Depot�� stores in the United States and Canada, as well as on www.homedepot.com and Home Decorators Collection catalog, online and retail stores. The Martha Stewart Living program at The Home Depot consists of a range of home decor, paint, storage and organization products, outdoor furniture, window treatments, kitchen cabinetry, countertops, carpet and seasonal holiday decor.

The Company�� Martha Stewart Collection at Macy�� is available at the approximately 650 Macy�� stores in the United States that offer home products, as well on www.macys.com. The Martha Stewart Collection line consists of a range of home goods, including bed and bath textiles, house wares, food preparation and other kitchen items, tabletop and holiday decorating items. Martha Stewart Crafts, a paper-based crafting program, consists of tools, embellishments, paper/albums, and other seasonal products. Martha Stewart Pets line consists of a range of pet accessories, including apparel, collars, leashes, bedding, grooming supplies and toys. The Martha Stewart Home Office line is sold at Staples in the United States and United Kingdom, on www.staples.com, and at Officeworks in Australia. The line consists of a range of home office products, including surface organization, journals, portable filing, pantry organization and the line of bags and totes.

Emerilware products by T-FAL consist of small kitchen appliances available at department stores and specialty retail outlets across the United States, as well as through the Home Shopping Network. Emerilware by All-Clad consists of lines of gourmet cookware and barbeque tools available at department stores and specialty retail outlets across the United States, as well as through the Home Shopping Network. Emeril Lagasse introduced with B&G Foods, Emeril�� Original is a line of seasonings, salad dressings, basting sauces and marinades, mustards, salsas, pasta sauces, pepper sauces, spice rubs, cooking sprays and ! stocks av! ailable at supermarkets and specialty markets across the United States, as well as through the Home Shopping Network. Emeril�� Gourmet Coffee with Timothy�� World Coffee is a single-cup coffee program consisting of flavored coffees inspired by Emeril Lagasse. The program is available in department and specialty stores nationwide, as well as in certain national hotel chains.

Emeril's Red Marble Steaks with Allen Brothers is a line of hand-selected, aged steaks. The line is available through catalog, online and the Home Shopping Network. During 2012, it launched Emeril by Snapware, which is branded food storage, on the Home Shopping Network.

Broadcasting

The Broadcasting segment consists of the Company's television production operations and its satellite radio operations. The Company�� Broadcasting business segment accounted for 9% of its total revenues during 2012. During 2012, the Company restructured the Broadcasting segment, which included the termination of its live audience television production operations. Emeril Lagasse also provides various television services for us. During 2012, Emeril Lagasse hosted a new show, Emeril's Florida, on the Cooking Channel. During 2012, it produced two seasons of a new weekly half-hour series, Martha Stewart�� Cooking School.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  On the news front,�PetSmart was downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform by Wolfe Research on Monday (no details appear to be available) while in�April, Bank of America also�downgraded�the company to Underperform from Neutral�citing an increase in competition. And to give an example of the dog eat dog competition in the pet space: A�lawsuit was filed back in April claiming Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc (NYSE: MSO) tried to undercut a business partner's relationship with PetSmart�was�allowed to proceed in court. According to the complaint, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc realized it had undervalued Stewart-branded pet products and then disparaged the plaintiff�to PetSmart and withheld approval of pet products to try to get latter to contract directly with Martha Stewart Living.��

Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Potomac Electric Power Company(POM)

Pepco Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the transmission, distribution, and supply of electricity. The company also distributes and supplies natural gas. It distributes electricity to approximately 1.8 million customers in the mid-Atlantic region and delivers natural gas to approximately 123,000 customers in Delaware. In addition, the company involves in the retail supply of electricity and natural gas; provision of energy efficiency services to federal, state, and local government customers; and designs, constructs, and operates combined heat and power and central energy plants, as well as owns and operates two oil-fired generation facilities. Further, it offers high voltage electric construction and maintenance services, low voltage electric construction and maintenance services, and streetlight construction and asset management services to utilities, municipalities, and other customers in the Washington, District of Columbia. Additionally, the company holds investments in eight cross-border energy leases. Pepco Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is based in Washington, District of Columbia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Among the sector stocks, Consolidated Water Co (NASDAQ: CWCO) was down more than 1.9 percent, while Pepco Holdings (NYSE: POM) tumbled around 0.9 percent.

• [By David Dittman]

  Answer: Richard Stavros, Ari Charney and I had a long conversation about Exelon in the aftermath of the announcement of its proposed acquisition of Pepco Holdings (NYSE: POM).

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top Headline
  Pepco Holdings (NYSE: POM) reported a 35% rise in its fourth-quarter profit. For the year, Pepco projects earnings of $1.12 to $1.27 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $1.22 per share. Pepco's quarterly earnings surged to $58 million, or $0.23 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $43 million, or $0.18 per share. Excluding one ��ime items, its earnings from continuing operations came in at $0.24 per share. Its total operating revenue climbed 3.3% to $1.09 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $1.11 billion.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top Headline
  Pepco Holdings (NYSE: POM) reported a 35% rise in its fourth-quarter profit. For the year, Pepco projects earnings of $1.12 to $1.27 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $1.22 per share. Pepco's quarterly earnings surged to $58 million, or $0.23 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $43 million, or $0.18 per share. Excluding one ��ime items, its earnings from continuing operations came in at $0.24 per share. Its total operating revenue climbed 3.3% to $1.09 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $1.11 billion.

Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Berry Plastics Group Inc (BERY)

Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (Berry), incorporated on November 18, 2005, is a provider of plastic consumer packaging and engineered materials. Berry owns 100% interest of Berry Plastics Corporation. Berry sells its solutions predominantly into end markets, such as food and beverage, healthcare and personal care. The Company operates in three segments: Rigid Packaging, Engineered Materials and Flexible Packaging. As of September 19, 2012, the Company supplied its customers through 82 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States (68 locations) and select international locations (14 locations). In June 2012, the Company acquired 100% interest of Frans Nooren Beheer B.V. and its operating companies (Stopaq). In September 2011, the Company acquired 100% interests of Rexam Closures Kentucky Inc., Rexam Delta Inc., Rexam Closures LLC, Rexam Closure Systems LLC, Rexam de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Rexam Singapore PTE Ltd., Rexam Participacoes Ltda. and Rexam Plasticos do Brasil Ltda. (collectively, Rexam SBC). In August 2011, Berry acquired 100% interest of LINPAC Packaging Filmco, Inc.

Rigid Packaging

The Company�� Rigid Packaging business consists of containers, foodservice items, house wares, closures, over caps, bottles, prescription vials, and tubes. The end uses for these products are consumer-oriented end markets, such as food and beverage, retail mass marketers, healthcare, personal care and household chemical. The Company manufactures a collection of container products. The Company produces 32 ounce or thermoformed polypropylene (PP) drink cups and offers a product line with sizes ranging from 12 to 52 ounces. The Company�� products of house wares market is focused on producing semi-disposable plastic home and party and plastic garden products. The Company produces closures and over caps across several of its product lines, including continuous-thread and child-resistant closures, as well as aerosol over caps. The Company also provides a range of custom closure ! solutions including fitments and plugs for medical applications, cups and spouts for liquid laundry detergent, and dropper bulb assemblies for medical and personal care applications.

The Company competes with Airlite, Letica, Polytainers, Silgan, Aptar Group and Reynolds.

Engineered Materials

Berry�� Engineered Materials business primarily consists of pipeline corrosion protection solutions, specialty tapes and adhesives, polyethylene-based film products, and can liners served to a variety of end markets including oil, water and gas infrastructure, industrial and consumer-oriented end markets. The Company produces anti-corrosion products to infrastructure, rehabilitation and pipeline projects throughout the world. Products include heat-shrinkable coatings, single- and multi-layer sleeves, pipeline coating tapes, anode systems for cathodic protection and epoxy coatings. These products are used in oil, gas and water supply and construction applications.

Berry is the manufacturer of cloth and foil tape products. Other tape products include range of splicing and laminating tapes, flame-retardant tapes, vinyl-coated and carton sealing tapes, electrical, double-faced cloth, masking, mounting, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) medical and specialty tapes. These products are sold under the National, Nashua and Polyken brands in the United States. The Company manufactures and sells a portfolio of PE-based film products to end users in the retail markets. These products are sold under brands, such as Ruffies and Film-Gard. Its products include drop cloths and retail trash bags. The Company manufactures customized PP-based, woven and sewn containers for the transportation and storage of raw materials, such as seeds, titanium dioxide, clay and resin pellets.

The Company offers range of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) meat film and agricultural film. Berry�� products are used primarily to wrap fresh meats, poultry and produce for supermarket applic! ations. I! n addition, the Company offers a line of boxed products for food service and retail sales. Berry sells trash-can liners and food bags for offices, restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, municipalities and manufacturing facilities. The Company also sells products under the Big City, Hospi-Tuff, Plas-Tuff, Rhino-X and Steel-Flex brands. The Company produces both hand and machine-wrap stretch films, which are used by end users to wrap products and packages for storage and shipping. It sells stretch film products to distributors and retail and industrial end users under the MaxTech and PalleTech brands.

The Company competes with AEP, Sigma and 3M.

Flexible Packaging

The Company�� Flexible Packaging business consists of barrier, multilayer film products, as well as finished flexible packages, such as printed bags and pouches. Berry manufactures and sells a range of film products ranging from mono layer to coextruded films having up to nine layers, lamination films sold primarily to flexible packaging converters and used for peelable lid stock, stand-up pouches, pillow pouches and other flexible packaging formats. The Company also manufactures barrier films used for cereal, cookie, cracker and dry mix packages that are sold directly to food manufacturers like Kraft and Pepsico. It also manufactures films for industrial applications ranging from lamination film for carpet padding to films used in solar panel construction.

The Company supplies component and packaging films used for personal care applications. Berry is a converter of printed bags, pouches and roll stock. Its manufacturing base includes integrated extrusion that combines with printing, laminating, bagmaking, Innolok and laser-score converting processes. The Company is a supplier of printed film products for the fresh bakery, tortilla and frozen vegetable markets with brands, such as SteamQuick Film, Freshview bags and Billboard. The Company manufactures specialty coated and laminated produ! cts for a! range of packaging applications. Its products are sold under the MarvelGuard and MarvelSeal brands and are sold to converters who transform them into finished goods.

The Company competes with Printpak, Tredegar and Bemis.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  One of the most famous scenes in the cult classic, the Graduate, was when Mr. McGuire�took Dustin Hoffman�� character aside and said�"Ben, I want to say one word to you, just one word: Plastics"; but what about the Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE: BERY) and its performance verses that of the�iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IVV), iShares Russell Midcap Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA: IWR) and iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IJR)? I should mention that plastics and the Berry Plastics Group was not the place to be yesterday as the stock took a tumble on reduced guidance.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  It's certainly not as big as Berry Plastics Group Inc. (NYSE:BERY). It's not even as big as Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG). There's one big way AEP Industries (NASDAQ:AEPI) can certainly compete head-on with BERY and TG right now, however... as an investment opportunity. Thanks to the bullish bump AEPI gave us last week, a long-standing selloff has been revered, and there's a whole lot of ground to make up.

Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014: APM Automotive Holdings Bhd (APM)

APM Automotive Holdings Berhad is a Malaysia-based investment holding company. The Company operates in six divisions: Suspension Division, which includes products, such as leaf springs, parabolic springs, coil springs, shock absorbers, gas springs, U-bolts and metal parts; Interior & Plastics Division, which includes products, such as plastics parts, interiors, seatings for motor vehicles, buses, auditoriums and cinemas; Electrical & Heat Exchange Division, which includes products, such as air-conditioning systems, radiators, starter motors, alternators, wiper system, distributors and other electrical parts; Marketing Division, which includes trading and distribution of automotive components/parts manufactured by it for the replacement and export market; Others, which include operations related to the rental of investment properties in Malaysia, and Operations Outside Malaysia include businesses in Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and United States. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Damian Illia]

  Since 1973 Compuware Corp (CPWR) has been providing software solutions both on-premise and through a software as a service (SaaS) model, as well as professional technical services related to mobile application developments and mainframe systems. The company reported revenues of $944.5 million in fiscal 2013, working through four segments: Performance Management (APM), Mainframe, Changepoint and Uniface. Through the APM segment Compuware provides services to maximize efficiency of web, non-web, mobile, streaming and cloud applications. Mainframe solutions are designed for organizations which require high developer productivity and enhanced service quality at lower costs, and through Changepoint it provides Professional Services Automation (PSA) and Project Portfolio Management services (PPM). Uniface, a rapid application development platform, creates renews and integrates enterprise applications. Currently, more than 7,100 companies, including many of the world's largest organizations, depend on Compuware and our new generation approach to performance management to do just that.

Hot Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Semtech Corporation(SMTC)

Semtech Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and markets analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products. The company?s product lines include protection products comprising filter and termination devices that provide protection for electronic systems from voltage spikes; power management products consisting of switching voltage regulators, combination switching and linear regulators, smart regulators, and charge pumps; and discrete semiconductor products, such as rectifiers, assemblies, and other products. It also offers wired communication, ultra-high speed Serializer/Deserializer, and modulator driver products that perform timing, synchronization, and amplification functions in high-speed networks; chips and transceivers for short reach, metro, and long haul applications; and high performance transceivers for datacenter applications. In addition, the company provides wireless and sensing products that perform radio frequency functions in indust rial, medical, and networking applications; and sensing functions in industrial and consumer applications. It serves original equipment manufacturers and their subcontractors in the computing, communications, consumer, and industrial end-markets directly, and through independent distributors and sales representative firms in North America, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. Semtech Corporation was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Camarillo, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading DOWN
  Shares of Semtech (NASDAQ: SMTC) were down 11.763 percent to $24.77 on lowered forecast. Raymond James downgraded the stock from Strong Buy to Outperform.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Semtech (Nasdaq: SMTC  ) .

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Semtech Corp.'s(SMTC) fiscal third-quarter profit slid 25% as the chip manufacturer posted a double-digit drop in revenue and slightly weaker gross margins.

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  After the market close yesterday, Semtech (NASDAQ: SMTC) lowered its fourth quarter guidance. The company sees revenue in a $120 million to $130 million range from a previous $132 million to $144 million range. EPS was lowered to a $0.18 to $0.24 range from a previous $0.29 to $0.37 range. Management blamed the lowered guidance on ��ngoing delays in carrier capex spending��Analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded shares to Perform from Outperform while Raymond James downgraded shares to Outperform from Strong Buy. Williams Financial also downgraded shares to Hold from Buy with a $27 price target, lowered from a previous $32. The analysts share similar beliefs that the company is showing no near-term growth drivers. Shares hit new 52 week lows of $22.57 before closing at $24.67, down 12.11 percent.